Anxiety is perhaps the defining psychological malady of our age, whereas creativity is seen as an almost unassailable good, its importance heralded and promoted in a range of disciplines and domains. A number of diverse thinkers and researchers have tried to unpick the relationship between anxiety and creativity, and this short book explores and connects some of their ideas and findings. Drawing on psychoanalysis and neuroscience, existential psychology and mindfulness, literary studies and philosophy, this book places a range of different disciplines in dialogue. It explores how creativity...

Serendipity and creativity are both broad, widely disputed, and yet consistently popular concepts which are relevant to understanding the positive aspects of our daily lives and even human progress in the arts and sciences. The chapters in this book reflects a variety of theoretical and practical approaches to serendipity in various domains, including creative problem solving, sculpture, writing, theatre and design. Chapter authors address issues such as the nature of the ‘prepared mind’, the role of accidents, serendipity as a skill or way of engaging with the world and, indeed, how...

This book offers interdisciplinary, multicultural, and international perspectives on the interrelation between culture, innovation, change and creative forces. Its wide-ranging contributions present theoretical and empirical approaches and with reference to different domains across disciplines including psychology, education, social sciences, humanities, and engineering. The authors demonstrate how urgent social, environmental, technological, and economic challenges can benefit from individual, and community creativity to effect change.In this volume, “culture” refers to sociocultural...